AFP/SeoulSamsung Electronics, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said yesterday it was considering a stock split that would placate existing investors and attract new ones with a more affordable share price. Head of investor relations Robert Yi said the South Korean tech giant had been looking into a possible split “for a while” but was still debating the benefits of such a move. “We know it would have a psychological impact, but need to look further at how that might affect the company’s long-term value,” Yi said. Samsung has been under growing pressure to boost shareholder returns as its stock price has been battered by a series of quarterly profit falls. Yi’s remarks saw Samsung’s share price jump 2.16% to close yesterday at 1.372mn won ($1,260) – although that is still way off a high of 1.470mn won in June last year. Samsung is currently in the middle of a $2bn share buyback process announced in November to appease disgruntled shareholders. With a market capitalisation of about $185bn, Samsung accounts for nearly 17% of the weighting on South Korea’s benchmark Kospi composite index.Samsung Electronics said yesterday it was considering a stock split that would placate existing investors and attract new ones with a more affordable share price.